


Last Chance

by ArianneMaya



Category: Fast & Furious (2009), Fast and the Furious Series
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-22
Updated: 2014-12-22
Packaged: 2018-03-02 20:37:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2825357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArianneMaya/pseuds/ArianneMaya
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>She wears Dom's cross all the time, like a talisman, like it's a part of him, the only part of him she got to keep when he chose to leave. Its weight between her breasts feels familiar, like Dom's eyes always on her.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>She never had any clear plans for her future, except that it would somehow involve cars. But she never imagined a life without Dom in it. It feels like the worst betrayal, like in one night, he broke every promise he ever made. </em>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Last Chance

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to Eeyore9990 for the beta. Any remaining mistakes are mine.

When Letty wakes up to an empty bed, she doesn't worry. She's the one who stays up half the night and sleeps in the morning; Dom is always up with the sun. Sometimes, she teases him about his old age catching up to him. He laughs, and reminds her that, old man or not, he can still beat her ass on the tracks. 

That morning, though, when she reaches toward the remnants of heat he left behind, when she's tempted to roll over and bury herself in the smell of the cologne he uses, all she finds is a cold bed. 

Her eyes open wide as she sits straight up and looks around the room. Nausea crawls its way into her throat while she stares at the empty drawers, the open door to the bathroom that shows only her own stuff on the counter. 

Slowly, she gets out of bed and walks around the room, around the whole house. Every trace of Dom is gone, as if he was never there. All that's left is his cross on her bedside table, along with money. He's left her his share of their last job, as if she was nothing but a cheap whore. 

Well, she thinks as she stares at the pile of cash, maybe a very expensive whore. But the thought still stings. 

She stares at the money, tempted to throw it all away, to grab his cross and throw it as far as she can, to watch it disappear into the ocean. How did the bastard dare leave without her?

Instead, she sits on the bed, thinking. She knows that Dom headed farther south to escape the cops. They'd already talked about it, but they'd had no clear destination in mind. They'd both hoped that the Dominican Republic would be far enough. Apparently it wasn't. And now Dom was chickening out on her. 

Did he think that he was protecting her? Helping her, somehow? God, this feels so fucked up. She needs him more than she needs anything else, more than she needs anybody else. More, it sometimes feel, than she needs to breathe. 

She can take care of herself. Always did, always will. The reason why she loves Dom so much is because he always respected that. And now... How did he dare take that choice out of her hands?

What is she supposed to do now?

Following him is out of the question. She has no idea where he's gone, and now that the team split, she won't have any help. 

She could go back to the States. She knows there are no charges on her head; the trucker never got a good look at her face, and for some reason, O'Conner didn't give up anything on her. 

Go back, yes... to what? To who?

Jesse's dead. Leon is gone God only knows where. She knows from Mia that Vince was in the hospital for the longest time after the job that went south, and that he was sent to jail, on minimal charges, and got out quickly. The one the cops really wanted was Dom. 

As soon as he got out, he disappeared. Letty know Vince is somewhere in South America, but she hasn't heard from him in months. 

And Mia...

Maybe. Just maybe. 

***

"Why didn't you call?"

So much for not telling anyone she was back in town. Somehow, though, Letty isn't surprised to find Mia on the doorstep of the motel room she settled in, mostly because they take payment in cash. While she has more than enough money, thanks to Dom being an idiot, it isn't the kind she can put in a bank account. 

"I wasn't sure if you'd want to talk to me." 

Mia elbows her out of the way so she can enter and close the door behind her.

"You're my friend, Letty. That's not gonna change any time soon."

Letty lets Mia pull her into a hug. They were friends, a long time ago, before Letty grew up and got curves and Dom finally noticed her. Then they became family. 

“How did you find me?”

Mia pulls away, just far enough that she can look Letty in the eyes. “Last time I spoke to him, Dom said you might come home soon. So I asked Hector to tell me if he heard of anything. And you weren't exactly hiding.” Her voice shaking, Mia continues, "Let's go home." 

Letty lets out a long, shuddery breath. She wasn't expecting that, but she can't refuse. "A'ight." 

***

"I can put new sheets on your bed, if you want." 

Letty and Mia are both standing in the entrance to the bedroom, Letty's bag still over her shoulder. Just the idea of sleeping alone in the same bed she shared with Dom for years makes her throat tighten. 

"No," she finally says. "I'll sleep in one of the guest bedrooms." 

There are memories in those bedrooms, too, of walking in on Leon or Vince or even, sometimes, Jesse, and screaming at them that they should learn to lock a fucking door, but those memories don't hurt as much. 

While Letty gets settled and starts unpacking, Mia sits on the newly made bed until she finally seems to find the courage to ask, "How is he?"

With a shrug to hide how much it hurts to talk about it, Letty says, "The bastard decided I needed him to protect me or some other bullshit and walked out on me. I know he was going further south, but I ain't got no idea where."

Mia doesn't answer, letting the silence weight heavily between them. Until Letty can't stand it anymore and asks, "What about you?"

"I, hum," Mia clears her throat, "I'm almost done with my classes. I'll start my internship next year." 

Letty stops, her clothes halfway into the drawer, and looks at Mia over her shoulder. "I thought you were a lot closer to your internship when it all went down." 

"Yeah, I was," Mia says with a stiff nod. "Then I had to spend weeks being questionned until the cops finally accepted that I didn't know anything. After that, I took some time off of school. I needed to be more solid on my feet before I went back." She looks at the ground. "It's a good thing that we always kept the house in my name. At least I didn't have to fight to keep it." 

Letty closes her eyes for a second. She's never given that much thought to how much trouble they'd get Mia in, in big part because every time they talked, Mia never told them if things weren't going so well. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"Please, Letty. What do you think Dom would have done if I'd told him?" 

He wouldn't have stayed in Mexico, that's a sure thing, if he thought that Mia needed him. It has to show on Letty's face, because Mia continues, “Exactly. I needed him to stay safe and out of prison more than I needed him by my side.” 

Opening her eyes, watching Mia now, Letty realizes that Mia wants, needs to have Dom home, and not in jail, just as much as she, herself, does. 

As she goes back to her unpacking, she resolves that she will make it happen. She has no idea how yet, but she will. 

Trying not to let any of that show, she asks, lightly, "Are you dating anyone?"

Mia lets out a soft laugh. "No. I've had a date here and there, but no." 

"Why not?" This feels familiar and good and safe. As if they are once again teenagers, trying to get the details of each other's love life, until Letty started dating Dom and Mia got grossed out because she _really_ didn't want to know those things about her brother. 

Mia's smile gets a little shaky. "Not since..." She sighs. "I could have loved him, you know?"

"Yeah. I know."

Even though Letty has no idea why that stopped Mia from moving forward with her life. 

The bastard was the one who'd ripped their family apart. 

***

"What are you gonna do?" Mia asks Letty the next morning.

Letty shrugs. "Hell if I know. All I'm good at is fixing cars and driving them." 

With a smile, Mia says, "Well. I know where you could start, if you want." 

In the barn at the back of the house, Letty barely notices the wreck of Dom's Charger before her gaze is drawn to her very own 240SX. Her mouth just about drops open in surprise. "You got it back?"

"The Charger was such a wreck that it wasn't worth much to anyone, except to me. And since there were no charges on you, getting your car wasn't so hard." Mia's smile fades a little. "Brian helped. As much as I let him." 

Before Letty can say anything, Mia shakes herself and continues, "I can't guarantee that the Nissan will run so well after spending five years in the barn, but you'll see."

"Yeah. I'll see." Letty trails her fingers along the side of her car. 

She can't believe she has her baby back. 

***

She wears Dom's cross all the time, like a talisman, like it's a part of him, the only part of him she got to keep when he chose to leave. Its weight between her breasts feels familiar, like Dom's eyes always on her.

She never had any clear plans for her future, except that it would somehow involve cars. But she never imagined a life without Dom in it. It feels like the worst betrayal, like in one night, he broke every promise he ever made. 

In the end, Letty decides that Mia's suggestion is a good one. She finds herself a job as a mechanic. It isn't worth much money, but it's enough to make sure that Mia doesn't have to cover the bills and groceries and everything for the house alone. 

She uses part of the money Dom left her to change the parts that need changing on her Nissan. The rest goes to putting the Charger back into shape. 

As she works in the barn, she starts going through Dom's old papers. She doesn't know what she's looking for, until she finds it. A list of phone numbers, and halfway down the page, a name that jumps out at her.

_Spilner._

It won't be any use, she's sure of it. Either it was a temporary number that he got only for his undercover work – just thinking about it makes her grit her teeth – or, if it was the real one, it has to have changed since then. It's been five years, after all. 

Still, she enters the number in her cell phone. 

Just in case. 

***

Once the Nissan is in a state to race and make a good time again, Letty gets back on the scene. 

There are a lot of new faces, lots of people who don't recognize her. She uses that, leaves guys in the dust, taking their not so much hard-earned money. She kicks the asses of those who think she can be cowered into handing back the money because she's just a girl. 

The few ones who won't be stopped by the fact that she knows how to take them down with the maximum possible humiliation – the only guy she could never win a fight against is Dom, and only because he taught her a lot of what she knows – finally back the fuck off when they hear through the grapevine that she was, still is, Toretto's girl. 

A couple of weeks later, she gets an offer for a job. She doesn't know if she impressed with her recent success on the racing scene, or if the guy heard about what she did with Dom and the guys. It doesn't matter. She lets the guy talk, uninterested from the start. There are risks she won't take without a team she trusts to watch her back. And she knows that isn't what this guy is offering. 

As he talks, though, she realizes that with the kind of job he's talking about, the guy she would be working for is less I-got-cops-on-my-ass wanted and more FBI wanted. She starts asking more questions, weaseling the name of her maybe future boss out of the guy talking to her before almost promising that she will be at his race. 

The next day, she finds herself staring at her phone and at the phone number she discovered in Dom's papers. She knows from Mia that after letting Dom go, O'Conner somehow got his badge back, and impressed enough people that he's now working for the FBI. She wondered how Mia knew all that but didn't ask; watching Mia clam up every time O'Conner's name comes up makes Letty hurt for her. 

She hits the call button, fully prepared to be faced with a stranger or no-one on the other end of the line. 

"O'Conner." 

Letty's eyes almost bug out of her head when she realizes that, even after all those years, the number still works. 

"Hello? Who's this?"

She's so surprised that he's about to hang up when she finally says, "It's Letty. I need to talk to you." 

***

They meet in a small café. 

"So? What did you want to talk about?"

Letty likes him a little more for the fact that he doesn't try to do small talk or beat around the bush. She does her best not to let it show. 

"Does the name Arturo Bragga ring a bell?" 

She has to give him credit to the fact that he barely blinks, a sharp breath the only hint that she took him by surprise. Anyone less used to undercover work would have spit his coffee all over the table. 

"How do you know him?"

"I don't. Some guy is recruiting drivers for him, for a job. He tried to recruit me." 

She watches as O'Conner puts his cup back on the table, just as cautious as she is to not let what he thinks show on his face.

"Okay. Why are you telling me this?"

She takes a deep breath. "Because it feels like that guy is a big fish. Big enough that _someone_ might want help taking him down." 

She's almost proud when O'Conner can't hide his surprise. 

"Why would you do that?"

She rests her arms on the table, hands one on top of the other, and she leans forward. "Here's the deal. I take the job, I go in, I get you whatever information you need to take him down. In exchange, all the charges on Dom are dropped. And I really mean _all_ of them." 

He leans back in his chair, like he's trying to distance himself. "Dammit, Letty, I can't promise you that." 

"I need him home. Mia needs him." O'Conner's still shaking his head, though, and she can feel her temper rising. She inhales sharply. When she speaks again, her voice is so controlled that it has to be obvious she's about to explode. "Dom almost asked you to step in, you know? When Jesse ran, when we were short one guy, he came this close," she shows maybe an inch between her thumb and forefinger, "to asking you to take his place. We barely knew you but he trusted you. You owe it to him."

"Letty..."

She doesn't let him finish. "If you want to pull this off, you need a real driver. Some cop wannabee ain't gonna cut it." 

She leaves a handful of dollars on the table and doesn't stay to see to see if he gets the sarcasm aimed at him. 

***

It takes five days for her to hear from O'Conner again. When she does, he tells her exactly what she was hoping for: they have a deal. If she pulls this off, Dom will be free to come home. 

The night before her first job for Bragga, she hangs Dom's cross on the Charger's rearview mirror. 

A promise to herself that Dom _will_ come home. 

She's going to make sure of it.


End file.
